In the Presence of Fear

New Patriotism Series #1

by Wendell Berry

In this first volume of The New Patriotism Series, prolific author Wendell Berry reflects deeply on the current sources of world hope and despair. Berry's powerful "Thoughts in the Presence of Fear", written in response to the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, originally appeared on OrionOnline, and has since been reprinted in 73 countries and seven languages. Orion has now made it available in print form, along with two related essays by Berry previously published in Orion Magazine. Together, they provide a much-needed road map to a full cultural recovery.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Politics, Nature, Philosophy, Environment, Food

44 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2001

About the author

Wendell Berry is a conservationist, farmer, essayist, novelist, professor of English and poet. He was born August 5, 1934 in Henry County, Kentucky where he now lives on a farm. The New York Times has called Berry the "prophet of rural America."

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This slim volume packs a big punch. The first essay is one of the most thoughtful and non-American-centric critiques of the 9-11 tragedy. With humility Wendell Berry reflects on how this event challenged our prosperity mindset and how it should guide our future toward a more local, caring economy.

The second essay explores the local economy in greater depth. Berry criticizes the false promise of global prosperity perpetuated by the current economic and governmental ideologies. After laying bare the lies of the global economy he discusses the human, economic, political and environmental benefits to be had from building a local, sustainable economy.

The third essay critiques movements which are generally narrowly focused on one issue or event. Although at times necessary, movements tend to miss the broad view of what is necessary to create cultural change. Most issues that movements address (environmental degradation, clean air, clean water, etc.) are actually part of a complex web of issues that all need to be worked on.

Thoughtful and engaging. I enjoyed these little essays enormously.

[Kari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three essays, one written after 9/11, one on local economy, and one on 'movements'. I certainly can't say anything better than Wendell Berry himself, so here is an excerpt from Thoughts in the Presence of Fear:

"What leads to peace is not violence but peaceableness, which is not passivity, but an alert, informed, practiced, and active state of being. We should recognize that while we have extravagantly subsidized the means of war, we have almost totally neglected the ways of peaceableness. We have, for example, several national military academies, but not one peace academy. We have ignored the teachings and the examples of Christ, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and other peaceable leaders. And here we have an inescapable duty to notice also that war is profitable, whereas the means of peaceableness, being cheap or free, make no money....

...The first thing we must begin to teach our children (and learn ourselves) is that we cannot spend and consume endlessly. We have got to learn to save and conserve. We do need a 'new economy', but one that is founded on thrift and care, on saving and conserving, not on excess and waste. An economy based on waste is inherently and hopelessly violent, and war is its inevitable by-product. We need a peaceable economy."

[Mark Valentine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Berry makes me feel grounded. His wisdom and acuity provide the needed direction for living in these disturbed days. I have renewed energy after reading this collection of three essays (the first is the title of the book) and hope to live the days that I have ahead of me in full clarity of deliberate choices for good, for local, and for the authentic experience.

Take a look at these lines from the title essay: "XXI: What leads to peace is...peaceableness, which is not passivity, but an alert, informed, practiced, and active state of being. We should recognize that while we have extravagantly subsidized the means of war, we have almost totally neglected the ways of peaceableness. We have, for example, several national military academies, but not one peace academy...We have an inescapable duty to notice also that war is profitable, whereas the means of peaceableness, being cheap or free, make no money."

It would be worth it all to have dinner with Berry and hear him converse for an evening.

[Elise Elder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and sweet and to the point. Berry's work is as relevant as ever- a comfort to read in these trying times.

The book contains three essays:
-Thoughts in the Presence of Fear
-The Idea of a Local Economy
-In Distrust of Movements

All are very interesting and remain accurate today- for Berry, intersectionality is not optional but imperative. His seamless blend of issues of region, class, and career lends itself nicely to important commentary on climate, political action, and our perception of the world around us. I appreciate his emphasis on individual responsibility while also maintaining the need to hold corporations and conglomerates accountable.

TLDR: very good read, definitely recommend, kentuckians ftw always

[Jun · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mr. Berry is a forceful writer. I agree with his criticisms of our complicity in the supranational corporate spirit of the age, but I think he extends his call to repentance too far in his zeal. Berry expounds a decentralized solution towards local sustainability and as much independence as possible, but I believe he can comfortably do so because he's living on the best continental real estate. He's preaching universally, but his salvation message remains American.

[Jordan J. Andlovec · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stunningly prescient. This short collection of essays circles around how globalism has changed us and given us all a sort of cognitive dissonance as we look out into the complexity of the world and its myriad problems.

[Brainard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful call to action. I suggest this for the “mandatory reading shelf” in learning how to be a better participant in the global economy...

[Fernando Duenas · Rating 5 out of 5]

3 great essays! The last one is the best.

[Geri Degruy · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always, Wendell Berry speaks the hard truth. These three essays, if digested and used, would change the world.

[Robert Myrland · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5* (rounded up)

Even more relevant in 2021. A must read.

[John Yates · Rating 4 out of 5]

A splendid little collection of essays. The final of the three was as lovely and profound as any of Berry’s. Great stuff

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really don’t know how many stars to give this because I didn’t understand some of it, especially as regards to the economy and free trade. I did really like that education should not be treated as an industry. Then instead we should be working to make our children environmentally culturally politically, etc. responsible. I also really liked: We must not again allow public emotion or the public media to caricature our enemies. If our enemies are now to be some nations of Islam, then we should undertake to know those enemies. Our school should begin to teach the histories, cultures, arts, and languages of these Islamic Nations, and our leaders should have the humility and the wisdom to ask the reason some of those people have for hating us.

[Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in response to 9/11, this book still holds its own today. Wendell Berry's writing is so full of beauty and wisdom no matter what he seems to be writing about--poetry, small town life, or in this case, issues such as the importance of land stewardship and problems with the global economy and "free trade".

This book is a slim 44 pages, but it is chalk full of things to think about. Berry is a master at saying something important with very few words.

"A change of heart or values without a practice is only another pointless luxury of a passively comsumptive way of life."

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book worth sharing with all of your neighbors and reading with all of your friends. This is the movement we need for America and the world. Local, vocational, radical. I couldn't recommend it enough. Here's a sentence that I may use for an epigraph: "The outward harmony that we desire between our economy and the world depends finally upon an inward harmony between our own hearts and the originating that is the life of all creatures, a spirit as near us as our own flesh and yet forever beyond the measures of this obsessively measuring age." (43)

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am now a Wendell Berry fan. The only thing keeping this book from being a 5-star is the lead essay's wholesale acceptance of the official story on 9/11. Please. There are serious holes and questions left unanswered, and intellectual integrity requires at least some reflection on that fact. The other essays show Berry to be a thinker in the best possible way on some of the most important issues facing contemporary society. Good dirt, or should I say, soil.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Berry never fails to engage me, and this collection is no different. Written in the aftermath of 9/11, the first essay in particular is something of a call to change our ways in light of that tragedy. In particular, Berry seems 9/11 as the crushing of economic and technological optimism that characterized much of the '90s. We need a new direction, one that is more human, more localized, and more peaceable. I couldn't agree more.

[Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely imperative read for anybody existing within the culture of the world today. Urgent, timeless, unquestioningly significant and pertaining to all those qualifying as a consumer in the post industrial society, ESPECIALLY in America. It will strike a deep chord to those who care at all about the wellbeing of the planet and humanity. Encouraging us to love symbiotically with the earth or face autonomy, oppression, and extinction. you must read this.. Change Your Perspective!

[jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

the patriot act is 342 pages, while the first part of this book, "thoughts in the presence of fear" is a mere 9. guess which one was the more measured response.

xx: the aim and result of war necessarily is not peace but victory, and any victory won by violence necessarily justifies the violence that won it and leads to further violence...

[Brian Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It is the replacement of vocation with economic determinism that the exterior workings of a total economy destroy the character and culture also from the inside."

"Our economy needs to know--and care--what it is doing. This is revolutionary, of course, if you have a taste for revolution, but it is also a matter of common sense."

Berry's essays are timely. 5/5

[James Hatton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is utterly brief, forty four short pages. But there's a lot here. I can't explain this book. It must be read to be understood. The reader may not agree with what's written here, but their mind will have something in it that was probably not there before. Hopefully, I'll reread this book someday.

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again, another book from my wife's school reading list at Eckerd that held my interest. Incisive from one of our best critics of "Total Economy" and proponents of the Local Economy. I'd only read Wendell's poetry prior to this, and I wasn't disappointed. A GOOD READ!

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

What these three essays, written in the wake of 9/11 and/or in response to it, lose to outdated-ness they more than make up for with timeless wisdom. Berry is a keen thinker whose reasoning is sound, who communicates lucidly, and is rooted in a rich life-giving tradition.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

These short essays would actually be a great intro to Wendell and some of the spirit of his writings.

Not a lot that needs to be said. Every time I read him, Berry solidifies his place very near the top of my list.

[Brendan M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is real good. I don't want to call it "essential" reading, but it's very short - 44 pages! 3 essays! - and a lot of the things Berry talks about are relevant to this particular moment in American life.

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting especially reading just after 9/11

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book changed my life.

[Rich · Rating 5 out of 5]

A profound work that all those concerned with long-term solution to our economic woes should read.

[tonia peckover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three short essays addressing the culture of fear, the local economy, and a distrust of movements. Excellent as always.

[Keriann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yay Wendell Berry! That is all.